HALF PAST DEAD

Half Past Dead is a 2001 action flick starring the one & only Steven Seagal in what would be his last theatrical release. Since then, all of his flicks have been straight-to-video (and with apparently good reason!). Anyway, the title of this flick refers to Steven's character--who's an undercover FBI agent--being clinically dead after a shootout at the beginning of the flick. Some years later he goes undercover at the newly-opened Alcatraz prison to further investigate a gun runner--played by rapper Ja Rule (this was, of course, back when people still cared who the hell Ja Rule was!)--he was investigating when he got shot. While in Alcatraz, the prison gets broken into by a gang of heavily-armed thieves who are wanting to break out an inmate who's about to be executed who ended up killing a few cops during a gold heist so he can tell them where the gold he stole and hid is. Of course, Seagal and Ja Rule's characters are hell-bent on stopping them. There's actually only a couple of fight scenes with Seagal in the flick compared to his other movies where he seemingly has endless fight scenes (you know, since he's such a karate "expert" and all!). Actually, Half Past Dead isn't too bad of an action flick in spite of the drubbing it took from critics (which I think had more to do with the fact that it starred the one & only Steven Seagal than anything else). I mean, compared to the straight-to-video drek Steven Seagal HAS starred in since the release of this movie, Half Past Dead is high art indeed! Diehard Steven Seagal fans--you know, the ones who'll watch the guy in ANYTHING (including that rather asinine "reality" show titled Steven Seagal: Lawman or whatever it was called!)--will undoubtedly enjoy this flick along with diehard (pardon the pun!) action film fans. Oh yeah, the resident eye candy in this flick is provided by Claudia Christian (of Babylon 5 and Playboy fame) who plays a fellow FBI agent in the flick and Nia Peeples (of Fame and Walker Texas Ranger fame) who plays a hot-as-hell bad, uh, guy--complete with tight leather clothing and sexy blue eye makeup!--who actually has a fight scene with none other than Ja Rule (and, yes, she whips his rapper ass!), which I think it would've been more, shall we say, interesting if she had a fight scene with the one & only Steven Seagal (but then, that's just me!).